Comments

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  Jyhazen

  Posts: 20 June 2012

  I've had good luck with "Exploration of a new land" in the past. Guess that wouldn't work for a solo, but it could with some good NPC's. I guess it depends on the class he's running. He could be an assassin with a mark to find, or he could be sent to guard a caravan?
  
  One I had that I thought was going to be great but flopped horribly for a single PC was an idea I got listening to the song Sad But True by Metallica. The idea was that a Wizard was controlling the PC and could see everything he did and could dictate his actions....the Player hated it...
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  dlaporte7271

  Posts: 94 June 2012

  One of my favorite adventure hooks was starting a player with amnesia and starting him down the path of trying to rediscover who he was. The player wakes up in a room, with no idea who he is, to the sound of someone pounding on a door. The door to the room flies open and a women runs in pleading with him to flee for his life because "they" are just outside. She quickly throws him some clothing and simple gear and pushes him out the back door. Nothing like starting your player out running!
  
  dlaporte
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  magavendon

  Posts: 112 June 2012

  I've done that one before (looking at dlaporte). If one of them seems like a traveller type then have them come in on a boat or a plane or a ship (water or rocket) depending on the scenario and setting. Then have their "extra bag of stuff" have been stolen (you can choose whether to make this "stolen stuff" recoverable or not). You could have a fight erupt around the PCs and then endear them to one of the dying NPCs. Or perhaps someone just walks up to them and offers them a job, randomly because it doesn't really matter who does it and they aren't too hard pressed on time it just needs to get done. Perhaps you do start them in a tavern, but then they all pass out (due to poison in the food) and wake up as prisoners somewhere. That one can be really exciting because they think it's the same old formula, but then their disoriented because now you put a wrench in the gears and viola returned a new invention to them (unless you've done this before of course).
  
  Recently I started each of my players in different locations in a town and let them explore the town a little bit (just after character creation, no real plan to do an adventure that night). They all almost immediately decided to go to the tavern of their own free will...
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  dlaporte7271

  Posts: 94 June 2012

  If you like the amnesia angle check out "Lord Valentine's Castle" by Frank Silverberg
  
  In my current campaign the main PC starts out in a peaceful valley that is invaded by an army of dragonborn...The adventure begins with her flight from the initial attack and her ensuing efforts to create a rebellion.
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  Leonidas300

  Posts: 275 June 2012 edited June 2012

  Dungeon Crawl Classics from Goodman Games did a cool introductary module: *Dungeon Crawl Classics #0: Legends are Made, not Born* - where the PC's started as commoners and choose their respective classes by the choices they make during the adventure. It was pretty fun and gave the group a common backstory which is always nice.

  Post edited by Leonidas300 on June 2012
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  optimus_mush

  Posts: 28 June 2012

  Start with a body.
  
  So many good mysteries and adventures start with a body.
  
  A group of travellers (including the PCs) cresting a mountain pass find the body of a middle aged man, crushed and mutilated, in the ditch. He is dressed in the garbs of a Pelorian priest beneath a stained travellers cloak. Closer inspection reveals his face to be frozen in a look of horror and his eyes are missing, leaving behind two red sockets filled with flies. All of his worldly possessions are in tact. Most of the travellers recoil in revulsion, making a sign against evil before continuing down the heavily rutted road that descends past a stone cairn a few hundred feet away that marks the boundaries to the barony of...
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  GamingMegaverse

  Posts: 3,001 June 2012

  Start with divine intervention. Always gives you a reason to do whatever you want, in any direction.
  killervp
  "A God...Rebuilt":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/a-god-rebuilt
  "Duskreign's First Ever COTM":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/wyrmshadow/wiki_pages/112011
  "OP's COTM April 2012":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/a-god-rebuilt-aprils-cotm/

  Just trying to help out.

  
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  jacobkosh

  Posts: 27 June 2012

  Whatever the particulars of the hook you use, I think a lot of times, especially when dealing with novice roleplayers, it's good to have the character start somewhere unfamiliar and uncomfortable. Maybe they're a farmboy or -girl who's just arrived in the big city, maybe they're a refugee from a distant war, or maybe their job has transferred them to a new post. That way you have less information that you have to give the player about the setting up-front and he or she can learn about things at the same time as their characters.
  
  Obviously this isn't going to work for every kind of story, but it's a good general strategy.